Different applications can be found on the market which provide a 2D and/or a 3D experience that includes image rendering with a multi-resolution image system, such terrain rendering. Examples of such applications are the following products (registered trademarks): GOOGLE Earth, GOOGLE Maps. GPS-based applications (e.g. GPS navigation) and flight simulation applications are other examples of applications that implement terrain rendering. Such applications usually make use of a multi-resolution image (e.g. map) system of an object (e.g. a terrain) to perform/update the rendering upon user-interaction. A multi-resolution map system comprises a usually very large set of maps that represents the terrain. Such a system usually needs to be stored on large memory storage (e.g. hard drive), and usually the maps do not fit all on the same time on fast memory (RAM, video memory). The application needs to constantly load and/or unload maps, which significantly affects the performances (e.g. frame rate) of the application. Several solutions exist to decrease the issues related to the loading operation. For example, maps can be compressed on the hard drive using compression algorithms (JPEG, JPEG2000, PNG, HD PHOTO are examples of such compressed formats).
Within this context, there is still a need for an improved way to record a multi-resolution image system of an object on a memory storage.